#20 —Sweet/Lynch — Unified

The third of three George Lynch records is next. This is the second Sweet/Lynch release following up 2015’s Only To Rise. At the album’s best moments, it’s a nice combination of Stryper and Dokken. It’s both heavy and melodic. And it’s worst moments, it’s a Queen ripoff that I really don’t like at all. And that’s just in the first two songs.

Lynch’s playing here is much closer to his Dokken days than either the Lynch Mob record or the KXM record. And Sweet can still sing — it doesn’t sound like he’s lost anything from the earliest Stryper days.

Of all things, I really like the bass playing on this record. Former White Lion bassist James Lomenzo is all over the record. The best songs here are Heart of Fire, Bridge of Broken Lies and Promised Land. Other than “Walk”, there aren’t any songs that I dislike, but overall the songwriting on the first Sweet/Lynch is much better.

After releasing three records in 2017, Lynch is working on a new project called Super Stroke with former Dokken bandmates Jeff Pilson and Mick Brown and former Lynch Mob vocalist Robert Mason. That has the makings of something more in the vein of what I’d like to hear.